Our ethics in creating beautiful jewellery

Quality

We, Julie and Shayna of Sky with Diamonds, pride ourselves in being extremely particular in the quality of products we will stock, the processes we find acceptable, and the people we choose to work with. We joke about being ‘too fussy’, but believe that this is the quality that makes Sky with Diamonds stand out from the many jewellery stores as an independent voice. Beautiful jewellery, brilliant design, firmly grounded in our values.

People

In terms of the people we work with, we have a team of craftspeople in Melbourne who are involved in making our jewellery. Julie and Shayna do the design work and some jewellery making, and are blessed by the work of our skilled silversmiths, goldsmiths, beaders, knotters, stone cuttters and engravers. When we have our designs made overseas, we meet with the people who will be doing the work, visit their workrooms, and pay fair wages for the work they do, regardless of where they are living. The same process applies when we curate collections and choose work from new silversmiths.

And we are very lucky to have wonderful shop assistants to treat our customers beautifully. In our bricks and mortar shop in Moonee Ponds, Melbourne, we have developed a reputation for our helpful staff who will give honest opinions in helping our customers to find a piece of jewellery that is flattering and suits their needs. We delight in having customers visit us with their dress or shoes for a special occasion as we search for the perfect jewellery piece. Or fascinator in the racing season!

Materials and mining

We love to work with natural materials. Gemstones, pearls, diamonds, gold, silver and platinum... they’re all beautiful to us.

However we fully realise the limitations of ethical conduct when dealing with materials that are mined. There are two ways in which we deal with this. First, we offer synthetic, laboratory created diamonds and gemstones as an alternative to our customers on request. Second, we we are very careful to only work with reputable gemstone and metal suppliers who provide appropriate care for their employees and environment in which they mine.

We offer independent valuations on our jewellery pieces. We include these free of charge for our more valuable items. They are done by an independent jewellery valuer, and can be used for your insurance. For other items, we can have an independent valuation done for you at the cost price. When choosing a loose diamond to set into one of our rings for a customer, we can opt to choose a diamond that comes with a Gemmological Institute of America (GIA) certification. The finished jewellery piece should then also have an independent valuation.

Local environment

On a smaller scale, in our workrooms and shop, we minimise our footprint in the same way we believe everyone should in their homes and businesses. Specific to jewellery making, we are careful in: minimising waste and taking care in its disposal; limiting water use in cleaning our materials; and in collecting every tiny scrap of silver and gold to recycle. These metals are precious and deserve to be used, not to end up in landfill.

Transparency

In making this website, we have been careful to give accurate, clear and easy to find labelling, to the best of our knowledge. If you would like to know more or had trouble spotting a detail you needed, by all means please let us know so we can improve the transparency of our site. An example of this is in the use of a semiprecious stone, howlite, which is is often dyed to give a more affordable alternative to turquoise. These items are clearly tagged, with a note in the item description. eg. ball pendant in stone and silver

Pricing

We at Sky with Diamonds don't have sales. Instead we always offer the most competitive price. We do this for a few reasons. We feel that pricing our items for what they are worth is the most transparent way of doing business. Second, we believe our customers deserve more respect than to be pressured into quickly making a purchase while it is on sale. And third, we all know that sinking feeling when we have purchased something at full price only to see it on sale the next week. Sinking feelings aren't really what we're aiming for!

Returns

Our policies around returns are clear and easy to find at the footer of each page, as is information about jewellery care. This Australian Consumer Law does not require any exchange or refund for change of mind on purchases, however we offer this to our customers as a courtesy, understanding that peace of mind can come in handy when buying gifts or online. We certainly do have exemptions to this, for example where the item was a special order.

Design

Our jewellers and designers are artists who deserve to control the sale of their products. All images are copyright to Sky with Diamonds, and we will pursue any person/s found to be copying our designs.

And perhaps the best evidence that we care about the ethics behind what we do, is that we have taken the time to write about it here. We would be happy to hear from you with any queries in choosing your jewellery.

We are a family business
Julie (left) and Shayna (right) are a mother and daughter team who have been designing and hand making jewellery in Melbourne since 1992.
They began with their love o...
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